| By: |
Raffaele Miniaci (University of Brescia, Italy);
Michele Pezzoni (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France; Observatoire des Sciences et Techniques, HCERES, Paris, France);
Sotaro Shibayama (The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan) |
| Abstract: |
Exploration is a critical input for creativity and innovation. This paper aims
to investigate how the innovator and her team's exploration activities boost
the innovator's performance. In our empirical context, the innovator is a
French professor at the university, and her team consists of her PhD students.
We study 14, 978 research teams, led by an equivalent number of supervisors.
Supervisors and students can explore by investigating research subjects that
the supervisor has not previously investigated. Moreover, the direction of
their exploration can be more or less aligned. We measure exploration by
assessing the similarity of students' and supervisors' research documents
using text analysis. Our regression analyses find that both supervisors' and
students' exploration activities play a role in determining the supervisors'
performance, as measured by publication quantity, impact, and novelty. We show
that an optimal combination of exploration activities and alignment yields
considerably higher supervisor performance compared to the average. Our
results support the idea that PhD students' exploration activities are of
paramount importance to their supervisors' performance, and that supervisors
should pay close attention when assigning students' thesis subjects. |
| Keywords: |
Research teams; Student exploration; Supervisor exploration; Scientific performance; Text analysis algorithm; Science of science |
| JEL: |
I20 O30 |
| Date: |
2025–12 |
| URL: |
https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2025-49 |